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Reading the gospels
Can I ask you please …What was the look on Jesus?s face as he taught the disciples?? What tone of voice did he adopt when he said these things?? Was he standing or sitting?? Did he have the Hebrew scriptures in his hand or simply written in his heart?? What [and this is the point of this sermon] is…
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Choir woes
Trying to get the church choir together is not like herding cats. I can herd cats. Well, I can herd one particularly difficult cat. The choir, I don't seem able to herd at all.
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None of their own
Last night I was elected as the new convenor of the Liberal Democrats in Stirling, taking over from someone who has done the job with some passion on and off for almost thirty years. Right now, the local Lib Dems are getting very excited about the new voting arrangements for the next local elections (which…
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Postcard Puzzle
Someone put a postcard through my door last night whilst I was out taking a Vestry meeting. It has me puzzled. It is a nice picture of a stained glass window in Dunfermline Abbey. The back of the card is completely blank. It was in a brown office envelope which was sealed and bears my name…
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Church Signs
I remember the effort that it took to get the Church Sign boards updated when I first moved here. They were covered in cobwebs and offered in illegible script information on contacting a range of clergy, some of whom were no longer there and one of whom was dead. There were also details of services…
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Re-membering
What is the opposite of remember?[Forget?]Well, in a sense, the opposite of remember is to forget. We do a lot of remembering in church, but what we are doing is not simply not-forgetting. Neither are we simply calling to mind.For the sake of this sermon, I invite you to consider that for the type of…
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The Anglican view of Marriage
I'm indebted to another member of the clergy for forwarding this on to me yesterday – it brightened up the day and made me laugh a lot:?The actions taken by the New Hampshire Episcopalians are an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife, Catherine of Aragon,…
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Christmas
I've just received my first Christmas card. It is from a company wanting to sell me Church Copyright licences – a business which I find unpleasant enough at the best of times. I hope that I am not being too Scrooge-like by putting it straight in the bin. I have a feeling that a lot of…
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Gunpowder, treason and plot
I rather like bonfire night, but the cat does not. Last night she spent part of the evening hiding under the dining room table refusing to come out until the banging noises stopped. I ended up under the table trying to convince her that life was worth hanging onto for a couple of days and…
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Old Gold
One aspect of the Gene Robinson story really interested me. It was the news that people around his diocese had been contributing gold jewellery to be melted down to make a pectoral cross – ie the cross which most Western bishops wear near their heart. Some divorcees had contributed wedding rings and there were some…